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MK. WeiFFIiE'^ SPEECH. 



SUBSTANCE OF A SPEECH DELIVERED AT THE WHIG 
MEETING HELD AT THE TOWN HOUSE, PROVI- 
DENCE, R. I., AUGUST 28, 1837, 
BY JOHN WHIPPLE, ESQ. 

Mb. Chairman — 

I once more appear before my fellow towns- 
men, to perform, what I consider, an imperious duty. 
This duty, sir, is of a mixed character ; partly painful 
and partly pleasing. It is painful when we reflect that 
the ruinous measures which have brought our Country to 
its present alarming condition, have been supported, al- 
most by acclamation, by a majority of the American 
People. It is pleasing, very pleasing, to see that there 
are yet so many of us, who do not entirely despair of 
shaking off the incubus, which has paralyzed so large a 
portion of the nation. 

We have met, sir, to make one struggle more to save a 
sinking Constitution. Shoulder to shoulder, we have 
before fought at the outposts and upon the ramparts. 
Inch by inch, we have been driven by numbers, and by 
hireling troops, until at last we are at the Citadel, not 
merely of the Constitution, but of law, of social order, nay 
of freedom itself. Here we must stand, and here, come 
what may, we icill stand. For one, sir, if the Constitution 
must fall, I am ready to fall with it. 

It is known to you, possibly to others, that to most of 
the mere party squabbles for mere party purposes, I have 
remained almost an indifferent spectator. But when I see 
the plain and massy columns which support the splendid 
Temple erected by our Fathers, one after another, falling 
beneath it — when I see that the hands employed in this 




sacreligious work are paid from the gold plundered from 
Temple itself, I feel that neutrality is but another name 
for becoming a party to the plunder. 

Sir, we seem almost to have forgotten tvho we are, and 
what we are. A deep and fatal lethargy is upon us. From 
one end to the other of this extensive Country, a dead and 
almost uniform silence seems to reign. Among the mill- 
ions of free and energetic intellects scattered over our 
•wide domain, we see but here and there one, able or wil- 
ling to raise his voice to the pitch which the crisis de- 
mands. Even the poverty and ruin, brought to our doors 
by the foulest of all misrules, appears not to have disturbed 
our fatal sleep. 

The Institutions established by our Fathers, and which 
for years have diifused among us blessings to which 
all other nations are perfect strangers, are rudely over- 
thrown. Principles subversive of civil liberty, and at 
open war with social order, are boldly advanced. Changes 
are designedly and wickedly made in the whole system of 
our commercial exchange. The fountains of trade are 
suddenly dried up, and thousands upon thousands of our 
most industrious citizens are plunged from affluence ta 
poverty, and from poverty down almost to penury and 
despair ; and still we sleep on, as if it were the sleep of 
death — let me tell you, sir, that so far as the cause of 
republican government is concerned, if it continue much 
longer, it will be the sleep of death. 

I should be more easily reconciled to the present alarm- 
ing condition of the Country, if I could see that the meas- 
ures which have produced it, had been the result of the 
mistakes or blunders of our rulers ; for in such a case it 
would be of short duration. The infancy and vigor of 
the Country would soon outgrow it. But these experi- 
ments have all been the result of design. They are 
merely parts of a broad and well settled scheme ; which 
scheme is as necessary to the purposes of those who de- 
vised itj now, as it was at its original adoption. It is still 



persevered in, and unless timely checkedj will be perseve- 
red in until the power of the people is entirely annihilated. 

The scheme is, to perpetuate the Chief Magistracy of 
the Country in the hands of a few self-elected leaders of 
the dominant party. This is the great and chief object, 
and the measures which have been pursued, are but means 
by which to accomplish that object. 

These means consist principally in so great an increase 
of the power of the Executive, that in time it will become 
independent both of Congress and the people. At first 
view, it may seem difficult to confer upon the Executive 
so vast a power. But, sir, in point of fact it has already 
been in part accomplished, and by means as simple and 
obvious, as they are wicked and corrupt. It has been in 
part accomplished — in the first place, by the removal of 
all the officers under the Government, and the substitution 
of others who hold their offices upon the condition, express 
or implied, that they and all their friends shall use all 
their influence, personal or official, to continue the present 
state of things, right or wrong. 

This was the first step ; and the second was, to place 
under the unlimited control of the Executive, the vast 
treasure of the wliole Country. 

Now, sir, it cannot be denied that both these measures 
have been already adopted. It cannot be denied that they 
were parts of the settled policy of the administration. 
Sir, instead of being denied, it is operdy avowed and 
openly justified. Neither can it be denied that these 
measures are the principal causes of the present calamities. 
All that can be denied is, that these measures have been 
adopted, and these evils brought upon us, with a view to 
perpetuate the first office of the nation in the hands of the 
prominent leaders of the ruling party, and to render that 
office independent both of Congress and the people. 

Sir, these are grave and deliberate charges not to be 
made rashly, nor to be established but by grave and com- 
petent proof. These men, like all others, are not to be 



condemned, but upon evidence which the common sense 
of ages has ratified, as the test of truth. By the main 
featm'es of their characters, so far as their characters mingle 
in their public acts, and by the necessary tendency and 
effect of these measures, must they stand or fall at the 
great bar of public opinion. 

Allow me then, sir, to appeal to this character and to 
these measures, and I do it with a confidence that we 
shall find in neither, anything to elevate our drooping 
hopes of the stability of our Government, or the perma- 
nency of our unrivalled Institutions. In justice to myself, 
and the views I am forced to take, I am compelled to say, 
that I have never indulged the dreamy hope that on the 
whole, we were a wiser or better people, than the countless 
nations which have gone before us. History, sir, when 
properly read, is full of wisdom and instruction ; and the 
lesson which it reads us, is not very favorable to the 
designing flattery which political men have pressed upon 
the age and the nation in which we live. 

I will glance at the characters of two of the leading au- 
thors of our present evils, in order to see if there is any- 
thing Avhich can relieve them from the just suspicions of 
an abused and indignant people, that a broad and settled 
scheme to perpetuate their power, has been deliberately 
formed, and in part, deliberately executed. I will speak 
of Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren, and I beg leave 
to premise that I have not the slightest personal feeling 
unfriendly to either of them. 

Andrew Jackson was by nature a coarse, rough, and 
very passionate man. This, his most intimate friends do 
not pretend to deny. Neither his education nor his early 
habits have done much to soften these native elements of 
his character ; for he was brought up with a rifle gun in 
one hand, and a Kentucky knife in the other. With the 
former he occasionally hunted game, and occasionally the 
poor and abused Indian. What use he made of the latter 
I do not know. He was savage and vindictive in his 



passions, bitter and unrelenting in his prejudices, and un- 
bounded and persevering in his ambition. With all these 
fierce and indomitable qualities, I am inclined to believe 
that he was originally honest in his purposes, and sincere 
and faithful in his attachments. But his honesty had 
about as much influence over his dark and malignant 
passions, as the little republic of Genoa had over the gloomy 
monarchies and fierce des])otisms of modern Europe. 

Martin Van Buren, on the other hand, is a character of 
an entirely opposite cast. He was a shrewd, subtle and 
calculating lawyer. Neither at the Bar, nor in the Senate, 
did he ever aspire to tlie highest kind of eloquence ; for 
he well knew that to be eloquent, required a large share 
of moral principle and moral feelings. By long habit he 
has become wily and schemy beyond most other men, and 
his low dexterity and habitual cunning, are altogether in- 
consistent with patriotic and high minded conduct, or fine 
and lofty feeling. 

What Sir Robert Walpole was to the English House of 
Commons, Mr. Van Buren is to the American people. He 
sincerely believes that every man has his ])rice, and his 
whole conduct from his first start in New York to the 
present day, evinces his fidelity to his own principles. 
These principles necessarily lead to wily conduct, and wily 
conduct necessarily clothes the face with a wily look. 
Accordingly what Junius said of an eminent Scotchman, 
is true of him : " Whenever I see a Scotchman smile, I 
feel an involvntary emotion to guard myself against mis- 
chief." 

These, sir, are the two men whom the American peo- 
ple have successively raised to the first office in the nation; 
and if I have given anything like a fair outline of their 
general characters, there is nothing in either, that would 
lead us to suppose that they would hesitate at any means 
likely to perpetuate the power of themselves or their party. 

But, sir, a much fairer way of judging of their motives 
and designs; is, by a brief examination of their conduct ; 



G 

and allow me to ask, what measures of a ??rt^?o??aZ charac- 
ter, were proposed or adopted by either of them during 
the eight years administration of Andrew Jackson ? Sir, 
he had money, and popularity, and power to an unlimited 
extent. What use did he ever make of either, except for 
party purposes ? He pulled down and demolished much 
of what his predecessors had built up, but what did he 
build up himself? What public improvements of any 
kind did he propose or adopt ? What did he do for na- 
tional roads, for internal facilities ? W^hat for trade, for 
education ? Has not his whole administration been tlie 
work of demolition ? 

One of his first efforts of this nature was upon his own 
cabinet, and evinced a settled scheme to reduce the whole 
frame work of the government to an abject obedience to 
his despotic will. He called Berrien and Branch, two 
high minded men from the South, to a seat in the coun- 
cils of the nation. — These men had not yet descended to 
the level of the New York politics. They would not al- 
low Van Buren to play liis game with false cards, or in 
other words, to buy popular favor with public money. For 
this reason, and for this alone, they were dismissed. Ing- 
ham shared the same fate, and at a subsequent period, 
M'Lean and Duane. 

These men, sir, were bound to act according to their 
consciences. The nation had a right to their deliberate 
judgment upon pending measures. They were not to 
throw up their hats and cry long live the chief, but to de- 
liberate and decide for the nation. — Sir, because they did 
deliberate and decide according to their consciences, in- 
stead of acquiesceing in the New York scheme of heaping 
all the power upon the Executive, they were rudely and 
wantonly dismissed, and more pliant substitutes selected. 
Never, since the establishment of our Government, had 
such a reckless measure been resorted to before. No pre- 
vious President ever before dared so to sport with the dig- 
nity of the nation. Allow me to ask why this unheard of 



and extraordinary measure were resorted to, if not with 
some unheard oi" and extraordinary design. 

But, sir, the main and tlio prominent measure of his 
Administration was another noveUy, as starthng and as 
dangerous, as it was wicked and corrupt. I mean the 
general removal of faithful ofllcers, for no other cause than 
that of thinking and acting for themselves. If sucli had 
been the previous policy of the Government, it would be 
unfair to charge it as a sin upon Andrew Jackson. But in 
point of fact, the well settled policy of all previous Ad- 
ministrations had been precisely the reverse. It had grown 
into a maxim, that in jiolitical as well as religious matters, 
every man had a right to act according to his judgment 
and his conscience. — Andrew .Tackson was bold and wick- 
ed enough to pull down this wise and well settled policy, 
and to proclaim to every office holder in the country that 
he would pay him the amount of his salary, be it five 
hundred, or five thousand dollars, so long as he supported 
all his measures, right or wrong, and no longer. Sir, a 
more depraved, wicked and corrupting policy, never was 
adopted in the most iron despotism of the darkest ages. I 
defy its parallel, either in the depravity of its motive, or 
the corrupting influence of its efl'ects. What is but a 
bribe ? With what other design was it introduced ? 
With what other design has it been so steadily persevered 
in? 

I do not mean to assert, that every officer under this- 
new system felt that he had been bribed ; for there are 
undoubtedly many upright and honest men among them. 
What I mean to assert is, that this extraordinary change 
was intended to produce in their minds a secret or an open 
influence, equivalent to a bribe. Sir, has it not had the 
intended efi"ect ? Do they not, from some motive or oth- 
er, resort to the most untiring and extraordinary means to 
live up to the condition of their appointment ? Until this 
wicked change, have we ever seen our public officers, al- 
most to a man, drilled and marched in countless numbers, 



8 

in such an appalling array, in support of every measure of 
the appointing power ? 

Sir, under the general Government, and tliose of the 
States friendly to the present Administration, and bound 
by the same corrupt policy, there are probably nearly 
one hundred thousand officers. Allowing that each 
officer will carry to the polls from among his numerous 
relations and dependents, four votes each — it would give 
to the Administration an army of five hundred thousand 
voters, all bound to a bountiful leader by the fascinating 
influence of gold. 

If this is not corruption, what is corruption ? If all this 
was not done with some fixed purpose and design, why 
was it done at all ? If the public good had required it, 
why was it not discovered by some previous Administra- 
tion ? It gave Andrew Jackson votes enough to secure 
his re-election. It conferred upon him the power of 
naming his successor. He did name his successor, and 
used all the influence of his office to secure his election,, 
and by the aid of these household troops, thus wantonly 
paid out of the public money, his election was secured. 

But this is not all. It was the design of this infamous 
combination of ambitious demagogues, not only to employ 
the whole aggregate salaries of all the United States and 
State officers, as so many vast engines for party purposes ; 
but they could not remain satisfied, while a single cent of 
the public money remained unemployed in aid of the same 
base design. By a law of the land, the treasure of the 
nation was deposited in the Bank of the United States. 
While there, it was beyond the reach of Andrew Jackson 
or Martin Van Buren. An attempt was made to buy the 
Bank over as an ally. This attempt totally failed. The 
deposits were then removed by one of the most arbitrary 
and despotic acts that ever disgraced a Turkish Bashaw, 
This money, thus foully seized, was placed in the hands 
of the thousand stockholders and directors of favored 
Banks, and thus contributed to swell wider and deeper 



the tide of golden influence. The Bank of the United 
States was demolished. Three hundred new Banks 
arose from its ashes. Specie payments were suspended, 
and a period of calamity has ensued, the duration of which 
none of us can foretell. 

Sir, I ask again, with what motivewere all these changes 
introduced ? With what motive were the salaries of all 
the public officers converted into so many bribes to pur- 
chase votes ? Did the public good require it ? It is not 
pretended. Was it called for by any moral principle ? It 
isagreed to be profligate and corrupt. What, then, was 
the motive ? The leading men and the leading papers all 
agree it was for party purposes and party purposes alone. 
Were not the deposites removed for the same purpose ? 
Was not the Bank destroyed in aid of the same nefarious 
scheme ? 

Am I not right, then, when I assert that a grand scheme 
was concerted by Jackson and Van Buren to perpetuate 
their dynasty ; that the means by which to efl'ect the ob- 
ject was, to concentrate all the powers of the Government 
in the Executive organ, so as to render it independent 
both of Congress and the people ? That this power was 
the power of the money of the nation ? Am I not right, 
when I assert, that that scheme has already in part been 
accomplished ? 

Sir, was not the whole of the public treasure formerly 
in the hands of Congress by a law of the land ? Is it 
not now in point of fact in the Executive ? Who con- 
ferred this power upon the Executive ? Previous to the 
reign of Andrew Jackson it was in Congress. Now it is 
in the Executive. How did it get there ? By a law of 
Congress ? No, sir. By a vote of the people ? No, sir. 
It was seized by the Executive in defiance of Congress, 
and in defiance of the people. 

Was it seized by accident or mistake ? Was it not by- 
design ? It is agreed that it was. What, then, was that 
design, if not to render the Executive independent ? 



10 

Sir, will it not render it independent ? I do not meari 
theoretically or legally, but practically independent. 
Will it not enable the Executive to defeat any law which 
may be introduced to restore the power to Congress ? Are 
there not members enough who either are, or may be made 
interested to legalize this arbitrary power of the leader of 
their party ? 

Sir, how is it with the people ? Allowing for the usual 
honest division of opinion, this money will turn nineteen 
elections out of twenty in favor of these arbitrary leaders 
of the dominant party. Is this a free expression of the 
will of the people ? Is this the boasted independence of 
our elections ? 

Sir, it is in vain, it is idle to reason upon such a subject. 
Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren, in defiance of the 
laws of the land, have seized upon a never failing instru- 
ment of power. With it they have already paralyzed 
Congress, and they have already paralyzed a large portion 
of the people, and where is its power to end ? 

Sir, it is a disgrace to attempt to reason upon such a 
subject. We might as well stop to reason with the mid- 
night ruffian applying the fire brand to our dwelling. The 
fire brand is already applied to our holy temple of Con- 
stitutional freedom. The destructive element is already 
kindling, and unless the friends of constitutional law rally 
in all their strength, this most beautiful work of human 
minds, will ere long, for a moment illumine the world 
with its blaze ; it will then fall in darkness and in ruins, 
and where among the nations of the world, is there an- 
other resting place in which the spirit of liberty can lay 
her head ? 

Sir, when I contemplate these atrocious acts of lawless 
power, when I see that not a minister or king, no nor a 
despot in Europe, ever held in his hand an instrument half 
80 effective, as is the whole treasure of this rich and ex- 
tended country ; when I see that the man who wields 
this tremendous power is wily, ambitious and aspiring ; 
when I see the hundreds of thousands who are fattening 



11 

vipon this treasure constantly shouting Hosanna to the 
most high, and when I see other hundreds of thousands 
of houseless free suffrage voters, ready at a call to flock to 
the standard of these pretended friends of the poor, I feel 
that as a friend to constitutional freedom, I could devote 
my whole soul to its rescue ; " that I could raise my voice 
to such a pitch, that it should reach every log house beyond 
the mountains," and that at its summons, millions of free 
and independent men would rush from their retreats, and 
hurl these aspiring demagogues from their guilty thrones. 

But sir, I am checked in these dreamy hopes, by the 
reflection that other voices louder and deeper, and issuing 
from bosoms better filled with the love of country than 
mine, have for years, sounded the alarm in vain ; that the 
stern, and manly, and patriotic spirit of Webster has poured 
forth its devotedness to the cause of freedom, and the 
Constitution, in tones, which in other days, would have 
been listened to by stocks and stones ; and that the warm 
heart and chrystal head of Clay, with a patriot's and a 
prophet's fire, have been almost worn down and exhausted 
in its behalf. 

A deep and deadly lethargy has indeed come upon us. 
Man worship and idolatry, like a cloud, hangs over and 
darkens the American mind. To what other cause can 
we impute the apparently uniinportant fact that these 
blind and devoted worshippers have compared, profanely 
compared the chief author of all our present evils, to 
Washington himself. To Washington, who lived not for 
himself, nor for a party ; no, nor for his country alone, 
but for the cause of freedom throughout the world. His 
spirit still lives, and is performing the great work originally 
assigned it. — Go on then pure and holy spirit, and fulfil 
thy destiny ! Thou wilt roll on through thy vast and 
magnificent orbit, to be gazed at, admired and imitated, 
so long as the sense of patriotic ardor and moral grandeur 
hold dominion in the human bosom ; thou wilt track thy 
splendid pathway down from age to age ; and when the 
last nations that inhabit this beautiful world, shall 



12 

be wearing away, and human power and human grandeur 
are closing up their last account, thy beacon light shall still 
shine aloft, and thy spotless name ascend to heaven, in 
the prayers of miUions of pure and patriotic men ! 

Andrew Jackson, the mere powdered rocket, sent up by 
the feverish breath of popular prejudice, and already fal- 
ling amid the gloom and desolation which he himself has 
created, he to compare with Washington ! "Hyperion to 
a Satyr. A mildewed ear, blasting its wholesome broth- 
er." He has indeed fallen amid the gloom and distress 
created by his own wicked hand. That distress has 
swept over our land like the Siroc of the east, leaving 
nothing but the sands of desolation in its track. It has 
visited every rank and class of men. Upon every calling 
and every profession, it has left its withering touch. 

We see the intelligent, the skilful, the honorable mer- 
chant, entirely prostrated by the blow. We see the pa- 
tient and industrious manufacturer, after having devoted 
his whole life to the accumulation of a little subsistence 
for his family, now wandering about our streets, pale and 
care worn, and reduced almost to want and beggary. We 
see the inventive the skilful and never tiring mechanic, 
obliged either to emigrate to a distant and unknown 
country, or to remain a witness to the suffering and dis- 
tress of a worthy family here. But above all, we see 
among the humble laborers, who have been reduced by 
the wicked flattery of these pretended friends of their 
class, every form of misery which belongs to human suf- 
fering. Whole families are wandering about the country 
houseless, foodless and friendless. Every morning, thou- 
sands rise from their bed of earth, without a crust of bread 
to mitigate their hunger. Every night many a half fam- 
ished mother, lies down with her half famished infant, 
struggling at her exhausted bosom. 

Sir, in this hour of gloom, of beggary and despair, where 
are these pretended friends of the humble poor ? 

In the halls of legislation enacting laws for their relief? 
Assembled in mighty Conventions, to force by combina- 



13 

tion a liberal charity for their support ? straining their own 
private means, to heal the wounds inflicted by their own 
wicked hands ? No, sir, no. From one end to the other 
of the country, not a hand is lifted, not a voice is raised, 
not a heart is moved ; but we see them feasting and fat- 
tening upon fifty millions of the public treasure, swearing 
that the grand experiment is working well, and throwing 
up their hats, in honor of the chief who devised it. 

Gracious God, where are we ? In what age — in what 
nation? Is this indeed our own, our native land? Are 
we descended from that proud and lofty race, who, upon 
the mere threat of injury, called up the scourging storm 
of revolution, went out upon the mighty deep and battle 
field, and poured forth their blood like rain, in defence of 
their country's honor ? 

Is there remaining among us no moral Scipio, who can 
again rally the broken forces of our moral power, and 
wage an everlasting Avar against these defilers of their 
Country's fame? Is this swelling tide of all-corrupting 
gold, to sweep over the whole of our land, palsy the nerve 
of every arm, and quench the fire of every heart ? 

Sir, we do indeed seem to have forgotten that we are 
living under a republican government ; that our honor 
and our fame are not committed to the care of ministers 
and kings, nor entrusted to the vigilance of a proud and 
prudent aristocracy; that the sacred deposite is in our hands, 
and that we are its only sentinels. When we become in- 
active or corrupt, who will guard the sacred treasure ? 

For one, sir, I could almost forgive all the other evils 
which these vile seducers have heaped upon us, could 
they but heal the deep and deadly moral wound upon the 
Country. I am aware that the loss of property is truly 
painful ; that the destruction of the industry and business 
of the Country is distressing, and that the sufferings of 
the poor are beyond my power of description. But, sir, 
these are physical evils, and have their limit. They are 
neither contagious nor transmissible. They bring with 
them a winter of great severity and bitterness ; but upon 



14 

such a winter, spring will again return with all its energy 
and freshness. New flowers will again be spread over 
our paths, and new beauty again gladden our hearts. But 
once corrupt the moral sense of a people, and you freeze 
up every generous and patriotic feeling. You bring upon 
it worse than the winter of death ; for no spring will vis- 
it its mouldering urn, nor shine on the night of its grave. 

Sir, the charge, the great and heavy charge which I 
bring against these men in power is, that they have de- 
graded our moral feehng, that they have, to the utmost of 
their power, dried up the source of manly and patriotic 
sentiment, and that they have done this by a kind of 
meanness always allied to little minds. The man who 
stands before me face to face, and prostrates me with a 
blow, I may at least respect ; but he who seduces my 
weakness or corrupts my morals, is as mean and contempt- 
ible as he is wicked and depraved. For one, sir, I ac- 
knowledge no difference between public and private prof- 
ligacy. By the general consent of mankind, he who en- 
ters the dwelling of a friend, and under the shelter of 
kindness and hospitality corrupts the integrity of his wife 
or daughter, ought to be consigned to an immediate gal- 
lows ; and yet, sir, what is this but a breach of trust and 
confidence ? What ought, then, to be the punishment of 
those who assume the sacred trust of guardians to the 
property and the honor of a great and prosperous people, 
and perpetuate their power, by corrupting the moral feel- 
ings of their confiding wards. 

Sir, I much fear that we keep our eye too exclusively 
upon physical evils ; that we too often forget that in a re- 
public, moral diseases which spread their contagion far 
and wide, and even transmit it to posterity, are more fatal 
because more contagious. We seem entirely to overlook 
the experience of other nations, and the never failing les- 
sons of history. It was moral and not physicial evils that 
destroyed all the ancient and all the modern republics. 
While the people themselves remain pure, no human force 
can avail against them. 



15 

Solon, sir, was the lawgiver of the little republic of 
Athens. After making himself master of the collected 
wisdom of other nations, he conferred upon his country a 
Constitution which never yet has been surpassed in the 
broad and sound views which it took of human society. 
It was the foundation of the laws of all succeeding na- 
tions. Under it, that little republic arrived to a pitch of 
wealth, of strength, and of national glory, which is still 
the admiration of the world. Sir, it was not the form of 
her free Constitution, but the spirit, the pure, lofty and 
patriotic spirit, which produced it, that worked out this 
miracle in national power and national glory. That spir- 
it infused itself into all her legislation, and shone resplen- 
dent in all her national contests. For one hundred and 
fifty years she continued in her bright ascent, when it was 
her fate to fall into the hands of the splendid, but the cool 
and ambitious Pericles. — He too, was a friend to the poor 
by whom he was elevated to power. He broke open the 
sacred Temple where was deposited all the treasure of 
the nation. He distributed it among his partizans and 
friends. He bought a people, with a peoples' gold. From 
that day forward, Athens drooped her proud and lofty head. 
Neither the power nor patriotism of her Phocion, nor the 
deep and thrilling tones of her Demosthenes could rouse 
her from her fatal lethargy. She gradually declined from 
the tyrant power of one little demagogue to that of one 
still lower, and finally breathed her last at the foot of the 
throne of Philip. 

Su', the ancient and original spirit of Athens, was the 
revolutionary spirit of our own country ; the spirit which 
poured out its blood at Lexington and Bunker Hill, and 
finally triumphed with inconceivable splendor on the 
heights of Yorktown. It gave us a Constitution on the 
Athenian model. It was the spirit of law, of order, of reg- 
ulated freedom. Under that spirit, we rose from poverty 
to affluence, from affluence to power, and were ascending 
along the most brilliant pathway to national glory, when 
it was our lot to fall into the hands not of a splendid Per- 



16 

ides, but the cool, the wily and ambitious demagogue, 
whose foot is now upon us. He too broke open the Tem- 
ple where was deposited our national treasure. He too, 
divided it among his partizans and friends, and from that 
day, we like Athens, began to droop our proud and lofty 
head. The cold and icy hand that administered this 
poison is still upon us. It must be removed or we shall 
surely die. Like Athens we shall pass down from the yoke 
of one demagogue to the yoke of another, and finally ex- 
pire in the arms of some modern Philip. 

Let no man flatter himself that this is the prediction of 
excited alarm, or of party feeling. It is the grave lesson 
of universal history. Unless this withering and corrupt- 
ing hand is removed, we shall surely die. We shall die, 
sir, not of a sudden blow, but by a slow and lingering 
consumption. On the nation's cheek I can already see the 
first flush of the alarming hectic. From her deep bosom 
I can already hear the first sounds of the low and hollow 
cough ; and upon her whole body 1 can discern the cold 
night sweat of fatal disease. Nothing but a great and tre- 
mendous eff'ort can save us. Our whole moral atmosphere 
must be changed. Sir, are we prepared for this effort ? 

For one, sir, I am not ready to give up this noble ship. 
Call all hands to their quarters. Nail the stars and stripes 
of our national glory to the head of the mast. Let the 
watchword be, sink or swim, death or victory. Rise, rise 
in all the majesty of your strength. I hear the voices of 
your Fathers from their tombs, beseeching you not to 
disgrace the holy cause of freedom. I see the uplifted 
hands of your infants from their cradles, imploring you not 
to leave them slaves. " I see the eye of the immortal 
Washington lighten along your embattled ranks./ I see 
you bearing down to the contest — I already hear the 
shouts of triumphant victory. Our gallant ship shall again 
ride proudly o'er the ocean's wave, and our unstained 
banner float proudly in the ocean's breeze. There may 
it ride, and there may it float, until it shall achieve for 
Freedom her great, her final triumph ! > 



